The Figurine

The Figurine
Theatrical poster
Directed by	Kunle Afolayan
Written by	Kemi Adesoye
Produced by	Kunle Afolayan
Starring	Ramsey Nouah Kunle Afolayan Omoni Oboli Funlola Aofiyebi-Raimi Jide Kosoko Wale Adebayo Muraina Oyelami
Cinematography	Yinka Edward
Edited by	Kayode Adeleke Steve Sodiya
Music by	Eilam Hoffman
Production company	Golden Effects Studios
Distributed by	Golden Effects Pictures
Release dates	February 6, 2009 (2009-02-06) (IFFR) October 2, 2009 (2009-10-02) (Nigeria) February 6, 2010 (2010-02-06) (Netherlands) May 18, 2013 (2013-05-18) (Japan)
Running time	122 minutes
Country	Nigeria
Languages	English Yoruba
Budget	₦70 million
Box office	₦30,000,000 (Nigeria)

The Figurine is a 2009 Nigerian thriller film written by Kemi Adesoye, produced and directed by Kunle Afolayan, who also stars in the film as one of the main protagonists. It also stars Ramsey Nouah and Omoni Oboli.

The movie narrates the story of two friends who finds a mystical sculpture in an abandoned shrine in the forest while serving at a National Youth Service Corps camp, and one of them decides to take the artwork home. Unknown to them, the sculpture is from the goddess 'Araromire' which bestows seven years of good luck on anyone who encounters it, and after the seven years have expired, seven years of bad luck follow. The lives of the two friends begin to change for good, as they become successful and wealthy businessmen. However, after seven years, things start to change for the worse.

The original idea for a thriller film came long ago from Kunle Afolayan himself and Jovi Babs and it was to be titled Shrine. The script took nine months to be finalized and the development stage took five years. The movie was shot in Lagos and Osun state for three months and received sponsorship from companies such as MicCom Golf Resort, GSK, Omatek, MTN, IRS Airlines, and Cinekraft, and media partners like HiTV and others. There were no professional stunts on the ground, so most of the stunts were performed by Kunle Afolayan on set.

The film received ten nominations and won five awards at the African Movie Academy Awards in 2010, including the awards for Best Picture, Heart of Africa, AMAA Achievement in Cinematography and AMAA Achievement in Visual Effect.

Plot

The film opens in Araromire in 1908: There is an old folktale about a goddess Araromire who asked a priest to invoke her spirit into a figurine carved out of the bark of a cursed tree. When villagers of Araromire touched the figurine, Araromire would grant them wealth and prosperity in all their endeavours. This good fortune however unfortunately lasts for just seven years, after which everything deteriorates and becomes worse than it was seven years ago. The climax of the disaster is when the priest who invoked her spirit is found dead at the river. The villagers become infuriated and invade the Araromire shrine; the shrine is burned down and that ends the evil of Araromire.

Lagos 2001: Femi (Ramsey Nouah) is about to go for his NYSC; He has been posted to Araromire – at this time his father(David J. Oserwe) has been very ill (it is later revealed in the movie that he was dying of cancer).

Sola (Kunle Afolayan) attends a job interview and apparently, he had no NYSC. He has also graduated with a third class. He was told he can't be employed without an NYSC certificate. Sola visits the Dean of his Faculty to get his clearance for NYSC. The Dean recognizes him as an irresponsible student who rarely attended his lectures. He further told him that he used to date Mona who was on the contrary: a brilliant girl. The Dean asks him where he has been posted to; "Araromire", he replied. The Dean picks interest and brings out a book. He starts to narrate the folk story about the village and the goddess it was named after. However, Sola fails to listen to rest of the tale (the disaster which follows the seven years) as he politely leaves the dean's office with disinterest.

Femi and Mona (Omoni Oboli) meet at the car park. She has been posted to Araromire as well; it is revealed here that they were once close friends. They both board a bus headed for Araromire. While in the bus, Mona is asleep and Femi brings out a ring; he stares at the ring and cuddles it while he stares at sleeping Mona. He is also seen cuddling the ring later at the camp.

Sola finally arrives at the NYSC orientation camp when the camp is almost over. While at the camp, out on an adventure in the jungle, Femi becomes drained and he stops in the woods to use his inhaler as he is an asthmatic patient. Sola also waits behind to help him. While in the jungle, they can hear a strange sound which always comes up during parade. They both start to trace the sound and later discover a strange object on top of a tree—it is the emitter of the sound. Rain starts to fall and they both run under a 'mud house'. Sola uses his lighter and starts to explore the place. The rain has stopped and Femi moves out of the building to get fresh air. Sola finds a figurine in an enclosed box.

On the last day of Parade, Mona informs Femi that Sola proposed to her and she accepted. She also stated that she's carrying his baby. Femi seems jealous and tries to discourage Sola from getting married, but Sola declines. Sola brings out the figurine he found at themud house and drops it on Femi's lap. Femi gets back from the NYSC only to see his father hale and hearty. He is also selected to go for a special training at his work place within just six months of his appointment. Sola gets a job as well and marries Mona.

Seven years later, Femi arrives from abroad and attends Sola's 'get-together'. Mona (who is pregnant again) introduces Femi to Linda (Funlola Aofiyebi), a fashion designer. Throughout the party, Femi pays no attention to her and keeps staring at Mona—he is apparently still in love with her. Lara (Tosin Sido), Femi's younger sister, now lives with Sola's family as Mona is helping her with her thesis. However, The Araromire figurine is still kept at Sola's. Femi's asthma has been cured miraculously as he smoked at the party.

Mona gets to know about the Araromire legend and she is worried; she begins to make conclusions and starts doubting the real source of the sudden wealth of the family. She also deduces that it may be the reason why her marriage with Sola has been so flawless, despite Sola having been a rascal and a Casanova back in school. She asks Lara to throw the figurine away but it returns into the house mysteriously. She then decides to throw it into the lagoon herself; she loses her pregnancy on her way to the lagoon. Femi and Linda go to the club; while dancing, Sola gets an asthma attack again after long years without the attack. On another day, Femi and Linda go out on a date and they both see Femi with another woman. After so many years of being faithful to Mona, it is later discovered that he is having an affair with Lara as well and he also had an affair with Linda. Femi arrives at his apartment one day and sees his father dead in his crafts workshop. Both Femi and Sola eventually lose their jobs. Femi raises the topic of the figurine and suggests that they return it to the shrine; though Sola still doesn't believe the figurine is responsible for all the misfortune, he agrees. Junior (Tobe Oboli), Sola first son, also dies by falling off from the building while trying to reach out to his mother—his father was having a big argument with his mum and the figurine was burnt. However, the figurine returns again. Then, Sola and Femi set out to return the figurine.

Mona, now in depression, sends Lara out of her house believing she let her son die (She was supposed to be with him at the time Junior had the accident). Lara's box opens up while she's struggling with Linda who is throwing her things out and also pushing her out of the compound. Lots of Figurines; similar to the one in Sola's study start to fall out of Lara's box. Apparently, she has been responsible for 'the return of the figurine' each time it was thrown out! She's called in and she starts to make confessions showing She is being controlled by her brother; Femi

Femi and Sola arrive at the Araromire Shrine to return the figurine; rain starts to fall and Femi is nowhere to be found. While Sola is busy looking for Femi, Femi kills him by hitting him with a log of wood. Femi returns to Lagos and he is confronted by Linda, whom Lara has already confessed to. Femi confirms the truth by revealing many things which proves that the whole Araromire good luck and bad luck was all a charade orchestrated by him in order to kill Sola and get Mona to himself. He terms the losing of their jobs, his father's death and his asthma 'coincidence'. He kills Linda afterwards and dumps her body in the lagoon. On his way back, he has his asthma attack and commands Lara to bring him his inhaler, but she refuses; instead, she calls the 'Rapid Response Squad' to report her brother's killing. Femi struggles to get upstairs. He reaches out to the body of Mona, he removes Sola's ring from her finger and replaces it with his ring (which he was always staring at earlier). The Rapid Response Squad arrives and declares Femi dead.

Linda, Femi and Mona are later seen alive and the movie ends with the caption 'What do you believe'?

Cast

File:Funlola Aofiyebi.jpg

Funlola Aofiyebi at the Lagos premiere of the movie

Leading cast

• Ramsey Nouah as Femi:

Femi is an unpredictable geek. He is often very serious with whatever he engages in. He falls in love with Mona (Omoni Oboli) and this feeling of love overtook him till he became irrational and Violent. He orchestrated a plan to win his love back by making the 'Araromire myth' a reality. Ramsey Nouah loves his role so much in this movie, He stated that the movie has everything Nollywood lacks in storytelling at that time and he was glad the movie was coming out of Nollywood. He stated in an interview that The Figurine is the only movie he's acted in that he's willing to keep to show to his kids when they are grown. Kunle Afolayan stated that he couldn't have thought of anyone to play the Femi character better. Fans were pleasantly surprised to see a different Ramsey Nouah apart from the 'sweet loverboy who can never hurt a fly' he was always playing before.

• Omoni Oboli as Mona:

Mona is the centre of this story. She is a close friend to the movie's antagonist, Femi (Ramsey Nouah). Unknown to her, Femi is desperately in love with her, but she's in love with someone else: Sola (Kunle Afolayan), who is a friend to Femi and knows that Femi is in love in with her as well. Mona eventually gets married to Sola after getting pregnant for him. Omoni Oboli liked the story when she was given the script. However, when she discovered her character was going to die in the movie, it was comical to her but fun. She stated that she likes Kunle Afolayan as a director and she wishes to learn a lot from him as she's hoping to become a director herself. She also stated that it was stressful on set as she was shooting with her real son (Tobe Oboli), so she had to take care of her son and shield him from likes of Kunle and Ramsey who would want to talk about 'adult stuff' on set. According to her, the scene where she was dragged down the stairs was the most difficult as it was shot over and over and she got a lot of bruises as a result.

• Kunle Afolayan as Sola:

Sola is a very unserious fellow and a Casanova who takes nothing seriously. He finds a mystical figurine while at his youth corps and takes it home. Despite his wayward ways and terrible grades, he gets a job, marries Mona (Omoni Oboli), gets rich with a wonderful family until after seven years when things start to turn around. Kunle, who directed the film, claims it is very stressful to act in one's film. Art Director Pat Nebo stated "Kunle showed heavy maturity when it mattered most; cos he had to act, then go back to direct".

Supporting cast

• Funlola Aofiyebi as Linda:

Linda is an 'outgoing' type of girl; a fashion designer who is a little desperate to get married cos she's getting older. She ends up with Femi who is still in love with Mona.

• Tosin Sido as Lara:

Lara is Femi's younger sister whom he used to carry out his plans. He gave her lots of Figurines crafted by their Father who is a Sculptor to scare Sola and Mona into breaking up. This is Tosin Sido's first movie. She was one of the numerous auditioned to play Femi's younger sister and she got the role.

• David J. Oserwe as Femi's father, a sculptor. He helps Femi to make the 'fake' figurines; believing he is selling them to western museums.
• Kate Adepegba as Ngozi, one of the Older Ladies Sola used to date; he still cheats on Mona with her (Ngozi) after marriage..

Others

• Muraina Oyelami as Sola's Dean in school
• Wale Adebayo as Camp Commandant
• Ombo Gogo Ombo as Priest:

Ombo was just a 'casual' picked in the crowd and he played the Priest role very well. Ombo played the Priest whom Araromire commanded to invoke her spirit into the Figurine in the Legend.

Cameos

• The make-up artist on set; Lola Maja played the doctor in the movie
• The narration in the movie was done by the highlife singer Lagbaja
• Pat Nebo, the art director, played the marriage registrar at Sola and Mona's wedding ceremony
• Yomi Fash Lanso also played Doctor in the movie.
• Jide Kosoko played an antagonistic Chairman and featured in two scenes.

Production

Development

The Figurine's funding came up when lots of questions were being asked about Nollywood, about the level of mediocrity and lack of good structure in the industry. Before The Figurine, only some few movies were fit to be shown in theatres as Nollywood was a home video-dominated Industry. Kunle Afolayan threw up a challenge to do something different which would be acceptable globally. The original idea for a thriller movie came long ago from Kunle Afolayan himself and Jovi Babs and it was to be titled Shrine. In 2006, Kunle Afolayan met a scriptwriter, Kemi Adesoye, and she was signed to write the script for the movie. A first draft script written by Kunle Afolayan was given to her. After going through the script, she said to the director "It's funny, not a thriller". The script had to be scrapped and another four different versions of a thriller movie were later written with the title Shrine. Care had to be taken when writing the script so as not insult people's beliefs; according to the Art Director, Pat Nebo, "living in Nigeria is a war between our culture and our love for independence in different ways". The script for the movie took nine months to be finalized and the development stage took five years. Within these periods, Kunle Afolayan shot a movie titled 'Irapada'; another spiritual-themed thriller which he said was just a practice. When he saw the success of Irapada, he then revisited The Figurine.

According to Kunle, all his life savings were put into the movie. Meanwhile, the movie got sponsorship from a number of brands and corporate organizations which include MicCom Golf Resort, GSK, Omatek and so on. After completion of the film however, other companies came on board like MTN, IRS Airlines, Cinekraft and Media partners like HiTV and many others.

Design of Araromire sculpture

File:The figurine 8.jpg

The Figurine Araromire sculpture

In designing the sculpture of the figurine 'Araromire', the sculptor stated that, as he understood the film, the sculpture should have a connection with African history and at the same time have expression of humanity like breasts (milk). Then a jewel was held by the figurine which indicates some kind of magical powers in it. And above all, the figure is naked, because life itself is naked.

The film was highly praised for the brilliant design of the figurine sculpture.

Filming

The movie was shot in Lagos and Ada, Osun state for three months. It took longer than expected due to budget constraints. The tourist attraction in Osun was shown in the movie by filming at the water falls, hills, the beautiful forests and so on. The movie was also shot in MicCom Golf Resort for one month. The equipment used for the movie were gotten from Jungle Film Works; the only place in Nigeria at that time to get all the equipments needed for big budget movies. Jungle film Works eventually came on board as associate producers for the film.

Junior's character was played by Omoni Oboli's Son; Tobe Oboli. This was a challenge for her as she has to be an actress and a mother on set.

There were no professional stunts on ground so most of the stunts were performed by Kunle Afolayan including a scene where the Priest was floating on the surface of the River; Kunle Afolayan was under the water lifting Ombo up. Other stunts were also performed by Mayowa Adebayo.

At the two Shrine scenes where Rain was needed, the crew were in a Village in Osun state. They had to contact the fire fighters from the city to help out. At the first day of shoot, there was not enough pressure for the water to create the needed effect; the water eventually got finished and the shoot was cancelled for that day with the amount of Cast and it was shot all over again the next day.

There was a lot of makeup and special effects used on Ombo (the Priest); He is not very old, so apart from body paintings, skin bags had to be applied on his face, long grey hairs had to be attached to his eye brows to make him look weird and fake contacts were added to his eyes as well.

According to the script, the house Sola and Mona live is supposed to be a Lagoon House. It took three weeks; Kunle and the Location Manager, Biodun Apantaku visited all Houses in Lagos Island, but no one would release their houses for a film shoot! The set later had to be created. the Set Designer had to erect a structure and create the necessary parts of the house (Sitting room, Kitchen and bedroom). However, sets for a couple of scenes were also created; for example, the mud house where the figurine was found was also erected.

File:The figurine 2.jpg

The erected Lagoon house

On a day of shoot, the crew were trying to move all the equipments to the Island; because you can only get to the island by boat. They wanted to move the equipments and put the generator on a boat and it capsized. Shooting was shut down for over a week and when they resumed, smaller generators were gotten; because they were using heavy lights; One of the generators developed faults and everything that was brought blew up. The battery, the charger got burnt and Shoot had to be cancelled for days again.

Music and soundtrack

The movie didn't make much use of music effects; however, the soundtrack used in the movie were notable;

• Araromire - Araromire, the theme song of the movie which was sang by Wale Waves was highly acclaimed and it topped many charts of 'Top movie Soundtracks'. It also got a lot of downloads. the soundtrack was Produced by Netto, for Cisum Entertainment and George Nathaniel.
• We are together - Was played during the wedding scene between Sola and Mona.
• Africanlipso by Lagbaja who was also the narrator for the movie.
• Awa de, an African Highlife music by the music Legend; Ayinde Barrister was played at the 'Get-together' scene
• Owo po was played at a club scene.

The music design was done by Eilam Hoffman.

Release

Pre-release and promotions

According to Kunle Afolayan, it was important to reach out to the audience and one good way was through social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. While the film was in production, photographs of scenes and locations were posted on the group page set up for The Figurine. He also stated that another important strategy was 'word of mouth' from which the movie benefited a lot.

A teaser trailer was released during the early months of 2009 and the movie immediately became the talk of town. The first official trailer for the movie was released on 10 August 2009 and the anticipation of the movie was raised further among fans. A Cinema promo was also released to the public on October 1, 2009

Premiere

The movie premiered in film festivals including The London African Film Festival, New York African Film Festival, Tokyo African Film Festival and Rotterdam International Film Festival. Golden Effects Pictures and Silverbird distributed the movie in Nigeria.

It premiered in Lagos on 2 October 2009 and was afterwards screened across Africa, Europe, America and Asia.

Reception

Critical reception

The Figurine was critically acclaimed. It was praised for its top-notch cinematography, and for being the movie to finally break the jinx of mediocrity in Nollywood and for leading the revolutionary rebirth of 'New-Nollywood'. A list of 'best Nollywood movies of the Decade' is never complete without the mention of The Figurine. Nollywood Reinvented praised the movie for its brilliant cinematography, memorable soundtrack, accurate set designing, 'the figurine Sculpture' and how the extras were used so as not to ruin the movie. She rated the movie 74% and wrote "Cinema is an art. Kunle Afolayan knows Cinema, therefore following the simple rules of logic, Kunle Afolayan is an artist". Tosin Johnson writes: "A purely African Story, The Figurine Opens us into a relatively new genre in African story telling – A Psychological thriller. This was delivered with very impressive emotional acting and a colorful array of costumes". Femi Owolabi also praised the movie for it's beautiful costumes

The movie however didn't pass without any criticism as many critics, often after praising the movie, always condemned the conclusion of the film. The ending has been described as confusing, ridiculous and 'An escape for uncreativity'. Many other critics think the opposite.

Box office

The Figurine was a success at the Nigerian box office. Due to the presence of few cinemas in the country as of 2009, the movie's total gross was approximated at around 30 million Naira. However, the movie was able to recoup its investment through international screenings. The movie was also screened in rented halls in Nigerian cities and schools.

Awards

The Figurine won the most awards at the 6th African Movie Academy Awards with five awards including 'The Best Picture'. It was nominated for ten awards at the 6th African Movie Academy Awards.

Complete list of awards

Award	Category	Recipients and nominees	Result	Notes
6th African Movie Academy Awards	The Best Picture	Kunle Afolayan, Ramsey Nouah	Won
	Best Director	Kunle Afolayan	Nominated	lost to Ghana's Shirley Frimpong-Manso for Perfect Picture
	Best Performance by an Actor in a leading Role	Ramsey Nouah	Won
	Best Performance by an Actress in a leading Role	Funlola Aofiyebi-Raimi	Nominated	Funlola Aofiyebi lost to Tapiwa Gwaza of 'Seasons of a life'
	Best Performance by a Child Actor	Tobe Oboli	Nominated	Tobe Oboli lost to Teddy Onyago and Bill Oloo of 'Togetherness Supreme'
	Heart of Africa Award	Kunle Afolayan	Won
	AMAA Achievement in Art Direction	Pat Nebo	Nominated	lost to 'Fulani'
	AMAA Achievement in Visual Effects	Obiora Okafor	Won
	Best Original Soundtrack	Wale Waves, Eilam Hoffman	Nominated	lost to 'A sting in a tale'
	AMAA Achievement in Cinematography	Yinka Edward	Won

Home media

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The Figurine DVD cover

The movie was released on DVD on 12 December 2011 by Golden Effects Pictures.

External links

• Official website
• The Figurine at IMDb
• Template:Allmovie title